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Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

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Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#161

Post by Karunamon »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #94
RandallBrown wrote: post #62

Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media? I use Twitter to follow interesting celebrities and industry professionals. (Adam Savage Mythbusters fame, pro climber Alex Honnold, several notable iOS programmers). I rarely interact with any of them, but I find out about lots of interesting things. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends around the country. I can keep my dad updated to wh…

What is happening on your Facebook that's making you unhappy? Not me because I haven't been on social media for years but I'm guessing it's comparison. If your friends are posting photos of their holiday in Bali and you only managed a camping trip over the weekend then how is that going to make you feel? Add in the doom and gloom in the news that tells you things have never been so bad and you can see it isn't health…

>If your friends are posting photos of their holiday in Bali and you only managed a camping trip over the weekend then how is that going to make you feel?

Happy that your friends are having a good time? Why does the default mode of human interaction need to be seething jealousy?

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#162

Post by JKCalhoun »

jacobkg wrote: post #69
RandallBrown wrote: post #62

Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media? I use Twitter to follow interesting celebrities and industry professionals. (Adam Savage Mythbusters fame, pro climber Alex Honnold, several notable iOS programmers). I rarely interact with any of them, but I find out about lots of interesting things. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends around the country. I can keep my dad updated to wh…

For most people there exists a news headline that will ruin their day or at least disrupt their morning e.g "Young child decapitated at amusement park" or "North Korea moves one step closer to nuking Western US" or "Bacon Gives You Cancer". Facebook heavily encourages people to write and share headlines like this (true or not) and then promotes them prominently in your news feed. This can take a heavy emotional toll…

This is true I think.

I have not had broadcast/cable TV on in the house in perhaps 18 years.

And yet when I take the family to a hotel and there's CNN/Fox/etc. running in the breakfast room it always seems like the world decided, at that precise moment, to inch close to the brink of Armageddon.

Fires blaze in the background behind the reporter, a palpable tension and urgency is heard from the talking heads....

And then I remember that it is just what the news "does" these days — and then realize that the beeping I am hearing is my waffle that is done.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#163

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

kragen wrote: post #155
jacobkg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people there exists a news headline that will ruin their day or at least disrupt their morning e.g "Young child decapitated at amusement park" or "North Korea moves one step closer to nuking Western US" or "Bacon Gives You Cancer". Facebook heavily encourages people to write and share headlines like this (true or not) and then promotes them prominently in your news feed. This can take a heavy emotional toll…

The bacon thing is maybe a good example of Hamming's Closed Door Paradox: I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do i…

I'm always perplexed by these contrived scenarios used to demonstrate some point or other.

Work with the door closed some of the time, when you need to slog through a task uninterrupted, then open the door to allow the serendipity of uncontrolled interruption.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#165

Post by briffle »

jacobkg wrote: post #69
RandallBrown wrote: post #62

Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media? I use Twitter to follow interesting celebrities and industry professionals. (Adam Savage Mythbusters fame, pro climber Alex Honnold, several notable iOS programmers). I rarely interact with any of them, but I find out about lots of interesting things. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends around the country. I can keep my dad updated to wh…

For most people there exists a news headline that will ruin their day or at least disrupt their morning e.g "Young child decapitated at amusement park" or "North Korea moves one step closer to nuking Western US" or "Bacon Gives You Cancer". Facebook heavily encourages people to write and share headlines like this (true or not) and then promotes them prominently in your news feed. This can take a heavy emotional toll…

We all convinced Grandma and Uncle Phil to stop sending those emails that end with "forward this email to 5 people today, or you will have bad luck". Unfortunately, they now put the exact same amount of thought into resharing some crap they find on Facebook about government conspiracies, and whatever political party is opposite of theirs.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#166

Post by turc1656 »

"The more you use social media in the way it’s designed to be used — persistently throughout your waking hours — the more your brain learns to crave a quick hit of stimulus at the slightest hint of boredom."

While I do not use social media (have FB but don't use it, never had Twitter, Instagram, etc.), and have taken steps to minimizing distractions like using the browser add-on Distraction-free Youtube (which is great, BTW), I have realized recently that HN is one of three sites I am addicted to and use in lieu of social media. I absolutely hit refresh on the HN main page whenever I encounter the "slightest hint of boredom" or just something I don't want to do. Same for the other sites.

This is troubling to me, as all three of those sites are legitimately very useful. I read them for useful information and to keep abreast of topics important to me and to know what's going on in the world. They also provide insights from other perspectives I have not considered and act as a challenge to my own opinions and beliefs. It seems obvious I am going to have to severely limit my use during normal hours. I am aware of the noprocrast setting but honestly, it's a setting I have full control over so that doesn't help as I'll just override it and the other sites have no such setting anyway. Going to have to rely on good ol' self discipline.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#168

Post by walshemj »

ProAm wrote: post #57
herbst wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a American only thing isn't it? Anyone knows of this in Europe?

Oh yes, America only, at least as far as I am aware of. I should have specified that.

I think or some finance jobs they will.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#169

Post by drewmol »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #124
RandallBrown wrote: post #62

Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media? I use Twitter to follow interesting celebrities and industry professionals. (Adam Savage Mythbusters fame, pro climber Alex Honnold, several notable iOS programmers). I rarely interact with any of them, but I find out about lots of interesting things. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends around the country. I can keep my dad updated to wh…

Well, I used to think I had a healthy relationship with drinking, but ohhh... Not that social media is the same thing at all. But I have a degree in philosophy and was trained in my formative years to argue with folks. That's a terrible mode to be in on social media-- it doesn't serve the people around me and it doesn't serve me at all. So I stopped arguing and just posted nice things, like songs I sing or good thing…

>But I have a degree in philosophy and was trained in my formative years to argue with folks.

Interestingly, the way we often teach debate is: Someone can argue either side of an issue, and be judged on the approach, successful influence or tactics used, with insufficient weight on the merits of the position.

I suspect this helps promote the climate that is reflected in your followup statement:

>I can't really get out of the mode of arguing - I'm constantly encountering people I love casually sharing memes that say that "people like me" are the root cause of all societal problems - I'm constantly reading between a bunch of lines and seeing where folks I love are in fact doing terrible things for their families and relationships.

Re: Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It (2016)

#170

Post by minikites »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #163
kragen wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bacon thing is maybe a good example of Hamming's Closed Door Paradox: I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do i…

I'm always perplexed by these contrived scenarios used to demonstrate some point or other. Work with the door closed some of the time, when you need to slog through a task uninterrupted, then open the door to allow the serendipity of uncontrolled interruption.

I didn't make the comment you've replied to but in my opinion, it's less about the specifics of the scenario and more about providing food for thought about _why_ you're working with the door open or closed and in what circumstances you make those choices. If you do one or the other particularly often out of habit, it's helpful to think about why and adjust your habits if necessary.
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